Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Mosul Campaign Day 198, May 2, 2017

The Golden Division and Rapid Reaction forces are now
attacking Mosul from a new direction, the northwest in 17 Tammuz (July 17) and
Rafai neighborhoods. The Golden Division is also fighting over the Zangili neighborhood
which is northwest of the Old City (not marked on map) (Institute for the Study
of War)

The major fighting in Mosul was on the new front in the
northwest. The Golden Division and Rapid Reaction Division were attacking
the July 17, Mesherfa, Najar and the Rifai neighborhoods. The Golden Division
was also said to have seized large parts of the Zinjali area to the northwest
of the Old City. The Federal Police were battling in the Old City, but that was
still stalemated. The goal remains to liberate the rest of west Mosul, and then
tackle the Old City at the end because the police have proven not up to the
task.

The Associated
Press was only the second group to interview people who either survived or
witnessed the Jadida bombing. In March
a suspected Coalition
air strike hit the Jadida neighborhood leaving over 200 fatalities. The Iraqi
forces immediately sought to deny the event. They first claimed that the
Islamic State was responsible for the story and threatened legal action against
reporters who covered it. They then released two deception stories about a car bomb and a booby trapped house
as being the culprits, but those did not happen in Jadida. The Coalition
admitted that it might be responsible for the bombing, and claimed that the
Islamic State was using the building as a fire position prompting the ISF to
call in an air strike. Neighbors and survivors of the Jadida incident denied
that the insurgents were inside the building. One claimed that an IS member
fired off some shots from the roof, but then left. People also denied the house
was laced with IEDs. The owner of the house was taking in civilians not only
from Jadida but ones that had been moving from neighborhood to neighborhood
either because they were forced out of their homes by IS or were trying to
escape the fighting. One family for example, had been kicked out of the Amil
area by the militants, and had taken up in several other buildings before
arriving in Jadida. Up to 100 people were inside the building as a result,
accounting for the high casualty figure. The Los
Angeles Times was the first paper to talk to Jadida survivors, and found
similar stories. When the offensive started to capture west Mosul, both the
Iraqis and Coalition said they would use more air strikes and artillery. This
is part of the collateral damage resulting from that decision.

Finally, Reuters
had a story about the education crisis in Ninewa. Many children did not attend
school in the two years that the Islamic State ruled Mosul and most of Ninewa
province. There are schools in the displacement camps, but many of them lack
teachers, books, and supplies. The longer families have stayed at them, there
is also pressure for kids to try to find work rather than an education to
support their relatives. In liberated east Mosul there are now 320 of 400
schools opened. The Ninewa Education Department estimates that 10% of kids in
the city are not attending, but that appeared a rough guess at best as there
were no student counts for the last four years. Reports by the United
Nations and aid groups that have surveyed Mosul have also found that while
there are plenty of elementary schools open, there are hardly any secondary
ones. There are also plenty of areas where kids are not attending. A few
neighborhoods also have no schools, none of the teachers or administrators are
being paid, there are severe book and supply shortages, and almost all the
facilities are damaged. Getting these schools repaired and running again is a
crucial step in the rebuilding process. The Ninewa government is attempting to
push this as quickly as possible, but there are still severe restraints on what
they can do due to personnel, capacity and money.

U.N. Survey of 45 Neighborhoods in East and West Mosul
On Education

89% of neighborhoods said
they had challenges getting an education

43% of neighborhoods said not
enough schools or classrooms

29 of 45 neighborhoods had
kids going to school

In all 7 west Mosul
neighborhoods less than 25% of kids were in school

30 of 45 neighborhoods said
their schools were damaged

SOURCES

Aboulenein, Ahmed,
“Without School, Children of Mosul Feared Lost to Poverty and Conflict,” Reuters,
5/2/17

Associated Press,
“House packed with families became death trap in Iraq’s Mosul,” 5/2/17

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com